I am thinking of opening up the return vent in the basement and adding a vent that I can open in the summer, with the A/C off and the air handler fan in the on position to pull cooler air in the basement to the rest of the house good or bad idea, its usually 10-15 degrees cooler in the basement.

Is the furnace room open to other areas of the basement? Do you have fuel burning appliances in the immediate vicinity? Hot water tank, fireplace etc.
If you draw return from an enclosed space you can cause a negative pressure in that area and potentially pull burnt gas products down the venting system if you have fuel burning appliances in the same area. If you don't have fuel burning appliances in the basement and you make your return opening in the return drop as you indicate it should be OK. It will be noisy being so close to the fan, but I'm guessing you don't have your lazy boy and big screen right there anyway.

twfsa

05-18-2012 03:15 PM

Thanks for your reply. I have a fairly big room where the furnace and w/heater is located enclosed a couple of pic's and a lousy diagram. I did this on the previous furnace and had no problems,just wondered if it was worth the trouble, oh and I did check the temp difference between upper and lower levels its only 7 degs, but it feels like a meat locker downstairs.